Lost village

A FEW rusted corrugated water tanks scattered amongst the leftovers of English ornamental gardens, stone walls and twisted barbed wire are all that remain of the pretty little village of Sherbrooke on Bulli Mountain.

The settlement, a couple of kilometres west of the summit of Bulli Pass, is no more – given a death sentence by the government at the dawn of the 20th century to provide the water needs of Sydney.

“The government resumed our property, our orchards and all the other peaceful homes in Sherbrooke, and began to build the Cataract Dam,” one time resident Lily Drinkal recalled in 1981.

“There were railway lines through our beautiful orchards; engines and trucks clattered all day; about 80 canvas tents were erected near our back fence. There was constant noise of blasting as the men blew out sandstone in Dad’s quarry to make the reservoir. To a child’s mind the workers seemed orderly and quiet people, but all our free happy times were ended.”

Today Sherbrooke is part of Sydney Water’s catchment area for the Cataract Dam, a forbidden zone, off limits, except with permits. Walking along the dirt track that constituted the main street of Sherbrooke, a feeling of paradise lost is felt – where as many as 16 families carved out an existence.

Reclaimed by Mother Nature, Sherbrooke can not even profess to be a ghost town – just a quiet valley with scattered evidence of where an isolated community lived and worked.

Sherbrooke began with the discovery of magnificent soft-wood forests in the late 1860s. The splendid red cedar interior of Bulli’s historic Uniting Church was cut and milled from the valley.

During its 40 odd years of existence the village has become legendary in the northern suburbs with many trekking the escarpment to walk through the remnants of a thriving fruit growing and timber milling community.

William Brown is credited with the first white settler of the area when he selected land at “Upper Bulli” or “Bulli Mountain” in about 1868. With his sons he cleared land for an apple orchard, calling his property “Ferndale”.

As the 1870s progressed George Blincko and his family, and others such as the Lovedays, Knights, Reeves, Blinckos, Hunts, Haberleys, and Keenes joined Brown on Bulli Mountain.

They etched out a living, growing fruit on mainly 40 acres blocks, with some settlers buying as many as three 40 acre properties. Besides the timber-mills and orchards, vegetable growing, bee-keeping and honey-making were also thriving industries in the valley.

Fruit trees flourished in the rich sandy loam and high rainfall of Sherbrooke. The mountain community bragged a school, boarding houses, and the Union Church, a protestant interdenominational chapel which opened in 1882 on land donated by William Loveday.

Sherbrooke’s Union Church being re-erected at the Illawarra Grevillea Park, Bulli

Reverend Hugh Walker Taylor

Protestant ministers from Bulli, such as the Reverend Hugh Walker Taylor, would make the journey up Bulli Pass on Sundays to preach in the sawn slab and shingled roof chapel.

The Rev. Taylor would make the arduous trip to Sherbrooke to provide the spiritual needs to parishioners such as William Dumbrell who was one of the first settlers of the valley and owned two 40 acre properties along Cataract Creek.

The first house reached would be that of the Parson family where the Church of England Minister would yell as he approached, “How’s the kettle Mrs Parsons”, with the teapot full of freshly made tea always on the ready for the preacher.

Dumbrell was in his mid 60s when he came to Bulli Mountain in the late 1860s to grow vegetables and fruit, later introducing blackberries that would one day become a major industry in the region.

William Dumbrell (left) grew the prickly plants as hedges for boundary fences in the mid 1870s. They quickly spread as weeds in the favourable climate. Blackberry picking became a major industry in north Illawarra, supplying the needs of Sydney jam factories, until their eradication in the 1940s.

William Dumbrell

Dumbrell died in 1876, a few years before authorities decided that there were far too many localities known as Bulli. North Bulli, Little Bulli and Bulli Pass were becoming a little confusing and “Bulli Mountain” was given a new name. The decision was made to call the mountain village, Sherbrooke, after Lord Sherbrooke, Robert Lowe in 1882. Bush fires were a constant threat to the inhabitants of the village with the Union Church destroyed and rebuilt after a blaze in 1896.

Sherbrooke resident, George Blincko purchased the church, dismantling and rebuilding it in High Street, Woonona as a family home. There it remained as a home until 1993 when the site was purchased for town houses. The Illawarra Grevillea Park, with the Black Diamond Heritage Centre at Bulli arranged for the historic building to be relocated yet again.

The church was placed on a large semi-trailer and transported to the Grevillea Park behind Slacky Flat, Bulli, where it operates as a visitors centre and wedding chapel – a reminder of the long lost village of Sherbrooke.

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2 thoughts on “Lost village”

I love reading about Sherbrooke,my mother grew up on Cataract Dam where her father was chief engineer and manager.She would tell of fruit trees in the bush and how she would collect badkets h of them and bring them back to the big house at the dam.how I wished now that I had asked her so much more when growing up ,she passed away when I was 17 and of course I was not very interested in the ‘olden’ days of her youth. I have an old photo somewhere of her with her sister in laws as young ladies eating standing around the fruit trees of /Sherbrooke .
This yarn by Mick Roberts is so nostalgic for me now.

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PUB BOOK – IDEAL GIFT

THE LOCAL, A History of Hotels and the Liquor Industry in the Far Northern Illawarra of NSW, by Mick Roberts is selling fast with less than 20 copies available. The 115 page glossy page book features histories of pubs in Helensburgh, Clifton, Scarborough and Austinmer. The book has now SOLD OUT. Copies may be found at Wollongong Library.

BULLI BRIEFS

UNUSUAL FALL

SYDNEY. January 3.
Mr. T. Freeman, electrical engineer
for the Bulli Shire, while staying at
a hotel at Moss Vale, mistook French window for a doorway at
night, stepped out, and he fell 20
feet to the paved yard below. His
thigh was fractured in five places.
His condition is serious.
- The Advertiser (Adelaide, SA) Wednesday 4 January 1933

MISSING DUNNY

In these days of fuel scarcity, food and clothing rationing, many things are stolen, but probably one of the strangest thefts was the one reported to the Bulli Shire Council on Monday night by the South Thirroul Surf Life Saving Club, who reported that the lavatories at the beach had been pulled down and stolen during the winter."
- Illawarra Mercury Friday 10 December 1943.

SOMEBODY’S BLUNDER

A colossal stack of coal, estimated to contain 65,000 tons has been lying at Bulli since 1917. It is deteriorating and has probably lost 65 per cent of its value. No one definitely knows who owns it, but it is believed to have been bought by Mr. Hughes for the Commonwealth, at a cost of £100,000.
- Geraldton Guardian (WA) Thursday 24 January 1924.

BELLAMBI COAL

BULLI, Friday - The shipments of coal from Port Bellambi last week totalled 3750 tons. Of this quantity 550 tons went to Victoria, 250 tons to New Zealand, and the balance to Sydney.
- Sydney Evening News Saturday 5 December 1896.

BULLI NEW HALL

Bulli, Tuesday.
The splendid new hall recently erected by the Odd fellows was opened, last evening, by the Lynch Family of Bellringers, who afforded a musical treat. The building was densely packed, fully 700 persons being present. The hall is a very fine one, and quite a credit to the district.
- Sydney Evening News Wednesday 20 January 1886.

BULLI SOIL

Over 160 bags of Bulli soil was shipped at the [Bulli] jetty on Monday last to be used for
the Melbourne Cricket Ground pitch. This soil was selected out of many samples forwarded from other parts of the State.
- Illawarra Mercury Saturday 21 March 1903

TELEGRAPH ARRIVES

BULLI. Wednesday.
The telegraph to Clifton village, at Coal Cliff, was completed last night, and a message sent through this morning to Electric Telegraph Department in Sydney.
- The Maitland Mercury Saturday 27 April 1878.

PROGRESSIVE BULLI

A record building year was experienced in the Shire during 1927, when 125 new buildings,
valued at £60,496, were erected, and additions numbering 97, with a value of £39,344, were also constructed. In addition to these amounts Public school buildings are being built at a cost of £18,000.
- The Sydney Morning Herald Tuesday 17 January 1928

FLOWER PICKING FINES

At Bulli Court today 19 persons, all from the metropolitian area,were fined for picking Christmas bells on Crown land, near top of Bulli Pass during Christmas week. Evidence was given that defendants were caught with from 12 to 100 bells in their possession. The fines ranged from £1 to £2. Many of the defendants stated that they did not know they were offending. Mr. Hardwick, S.M., advised them to read the newspapers.
- The Sydney Morning Herald Saturday 29 January 1938.

BOYS BRAVERY

A verdict of accidental death was returned by the Bulli Coroner, Mr.
Keegan, to-day, at the inquiry into the death of Mrs. Florence Angwin, and her son and daughter, Francis, 8, and Lola, 6, who were drowned at Helensburgh on Boxing Day. The Coroner congratulated Hugh and Alexander Blair for the bravery they
displayed in going to the rescue. He expressed the opinion that their action should be recognised by the Royal Humane Society.
- Daily Examiner (Grafton, NSW) Friday 17 January 1936.

HEALTHY BULLI

INFECTIOUS DISEASED
Lowest On Record
IN BULLI SHIRE
With only nine cases of infectious disease during the year the Bulli Shire has constituted a record for the thirty six years of Its existence.
Two cases of scarlet fever were reported last month, making five case for the year; there were two cases' of diphtheria, one of which was a visitor from the metropolitan area, and had been contracted before the sufferer visited the Shire. There was one case of meningitis' and one of puerperal fever. The report was received with satisfaction.
- Illawarra Mercury Thursday 24 December 1942.

HURLED 20 FEET

After receiving, a shock from a high-tension wire, Herbert Ashford, of Bulli, was hurled 20 feet. He suffered only severe shock, Ashford took shelter in an iron shed while men digging a pipe line fired; a charge of explosive. A stone from the charge brought down a high-tension wire, which fell against the shed. Ashford, who was leaning against the shed, was thrown out of
the door on to the road.
- Albury Banner Friday 23 December 1938.

Gaming Raids

Members of the CIB vice squad, under Inspector Crothers, raided billiard saloons at Coledale, Thirroul, Bulli, and Austinmer on Friday night and arrested five men on charges of managing and conducting common gaming houses. The police seized 17 poker machines. The men will appear at the Bulli Court next Friday. - Sunday Herald (Sydney) Sunday 3 June 1951.

Bulli Pass Pavilion

'Traveller' writes: The pavilion
recently erected at the "Look-out", instead of answering the purpose intended is the common resort of tramps, whose ideas of tidiness are very small, consequently what was intended as a public boon to sightseers is now neither use nor ornament. - Illawarra Mercury Saturday 21 March 1903.

Dirty Deed

RECENTLY it was stated that one
of the new doors at the lavatories
at Wentworth Oval, Portland, had
been taken away by some un-authorised person. At South Thirroul, on the Illawarra Line, they go even further. Probably one of the strangest thefts was the one reported at last meeting of Bulli Shire Council by the Thirroul Life Saving Club that the lavatories at the beach had been pulled down, and stolen during the winter. - Mudgee Guardian Thursday 6 January 1944.

Unusual Operation

THE Sydney Hospital dealt with an unusual case yesterday, when half a set of false teeth was removed from the stomach of Samuel Fielding, of Woonona, near Bulli. Fielding went to sleep with his false teeth in his mouth on Saturday night, and during the night the plate cracked, and half the set slipped down his throat. Fielding does not know whether he will risk settlng another set. - Daily Standard (Brisbane, Qld) Thursday 17 February 1927

Feathered Patient

OFFICERS of Bulli Ambulance Station recently had
an unusual "patient"
when a champion pigeon
was brought to them by
its owner, Mr L. Strachan of Bulli, for treatment.
The unfortunate bird was
badly gashed when it dived
at high speed into a prong
of the television aerial on
Mr. Strachan's home.
The owner, wishing to
save his champion, took it to Bulli Ambulance Station, where officers inserted 22 stitches in the wound. After stitching, the bird seemed to be doing quite well but unfortantely later died, probaly from shock. - Western Herald (Bourke, NSW) Friday 29 October 1965

Big Bullocky at Bulli

ANOTHER big bullock, purchased as a prize winner at Sydney Show, was this week served up to customers at Floyd's butcher shop (corner Park Road and Main Road), Bulli. Mr. Jack Floyd surprised several by carrying from the cart to the block a forequarter, which weighed 440 lbs. - Illawarra Mercury Friday 1 May 1925.

Drunk & Disorderly

Elwyn Hale Broad, Joseph Cassidy and Edward Laughlin were each
charged with being drunk and disorderly in main road, Bulli, on October 26th. They pleaded guilty.
Sergeant Newland said the men
were arrested on the verandah of the Bulli Family Hotel. They were
wrestling with one another. Cassidy and Laughlin were each fined 10/- or 24 hours, and Broad £1 or two days. - South Coast Times Friday 1 November 1935.

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